Judgment :-

Dipak Misra, J.

This Appeal by Special Leave is directed against the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated July 31, 2008 passed by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh in Criminal Appeal No. 543-SB of 1996 whereby the learned Single Judge has given the stamp of approval to the conviction and sentence recoded by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Kurukshetra in S.T. No. 15 of 1993 on 24.7.1996 whereby he, after finding the accused-appellant guilty of the offence punishable under Section 18 of the Narcotic Drugs & Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (for brevity ‘the Act’), had sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of ten years and to pay a fine of Rs.1,00,000/- and, in default of payment of fine, to suffer further rigorous imprisonment for a period of one year.

2. The factual matrix as has been undraped by the prosecution is that on 23.12.1992 about 10.00 A.M., Kaptan Singh, the Sub-Inspector, along with other police officials, was present near Deer Park, Pipli, in connection with excise checking in a Tata Mobile Vehicle. Receiving a secret and reliable information to the effect that the accused-appellant would come to th